In Thessaloniki there also used to be a Tyrian Purple Dyeing Association, while the coasts of Laconia and Corinth, which constituted the most important centres of its gathering and production, used coins bearing the image of Tyrian Purple. Rhodes, Kos, Amorgos, Chios and Nisyros, formerly named Porphyris, are some of the Aegean Islands famous for the production of Tyrian Purple. Tyrian purple, however, continued to be used during the Geometric and the Classical periods with an emphasis on the Roman period, during which common people were forbidden by law to dress in purple garments. Theseus had plunged into the sea and re-emerged dressed in purple garments, to prove his divine origin to Minos. Zeus recognized and saved Perseus thanks to his purple robe.
Andromache and Helen embroidered purple fabrics, while Hector’s ashes were placed on a purple cloth. The use of Tyrian Purple is also mentioned in the Homeric Epics. Moreover, it is well known that for the textiles to be immersed in the liquid purple dye, they first had to boil at high temperatures for several days. More specifically, it refers to “something that shall be boiled”. From a linguistic point of view, it is maintained that the word purple is directly derived from the Greek verb “porphyro”, which means to boil, a linguistic form of the Greek verb “phyro”. More recent theories, however, have rejected the myths and traditions linking the name of the Phoenicians to the discovery of Tyrian Purple. The Phoenicians, who were the main producers of imperial purple in the 1st millennium BC, were also the principal traders of purple textiles. The shells of the Lebanese coast are also connoted. Perhaps this is why the early historians of ancient Greece used the word Phoenix to connote the meaning of “red”, in addition to that of the Phoenician national origin. Other myths portray King Phoenix, the brother of Europa and Cadmus of Thebes, as the founder of the city of Tyre, where the very best purple fabrics were made. According to Pollux, this took place seven generations before the Trojan War. After observing the dog, nymph Phoenicia had discovered how to produce the Tyrian Purple colour. According to mythological tradition (Pollux – Onomasticon I, 45), Hercules’ dog turned red while chewing on a murex snail.
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